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City of PCB sued after Bid-A-Wee fisticuffs

By Chris Olwell // The News Herald

Published: Tuesday, September 24, 2013 at 08:38 PM.

PANAMA
CITY
— An attorney for a man acquitted last year of beating the president of a neighborhood homeowners association has filed a lawsuit against the city of
Panama
City
Beach Police
and the Beach Police officer who arrested him, alleging negligence, false arrest and
mali
cious prosecution.

The suit brought by Marie Maddox on behalf of Randy Martin, 57, contends John Kelly, a former
Panama
City
Beach
Police officer who is now with the department’s reserve unit, arrested Martin without probable cause and then lied when he testified at Martin’s trial on a count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Martin and Jimmy Smith, who was then the president of the Bid-a-Wee Homeowners Association, were involved in a fistfight in Smith’s yard in July 2011. Smith called police, who arrived and arrested Martin on felony charges of aggravated assault, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and assault on a person over 65.

Martin and Smith had a long-standing dispute over Smith’s actions as president of the homeowners association, including the placement of gates at the neighborhood’s beach accesses, according to News Herald archives.

The suit, which was filed in
Bay
County
on
W
ednesday, claims Smith was the aggressor in the fight, and Martin only defended himself after Smith “sucker punched” him. Kelly performed a one-sided investigation that resulted in Martin’s wrongful arrest, the suit alleges, and
Panama
City
Beach
, as Kelly’s employer, failed to investigate Kelly’s history and training.

“It went from one bad nightmare to another,” Martin said Monday.

Martin is seeking attorney’s fees and unspecified punitive damages from both Kelly and the city. He said the media coverage of his arrest hurt his reputation and career in the electrical supply
ind
ustry, and the incident in general caused him great stress as he awaited trial.

PANAMA CITY — An attorney for a man acquitted last year of beating the president of a neighborhood homeowners association has filed a lawsuit against the city of Panama City Beach Police and the Beach Police officer who arrested him, alleging negligence, false arrest and malicious prosecution.

The suit brought by Marie Maddox on behalf of Randy Martin, 57, contends John Kelly, a former Panama CityBeach Police officer who is now with the department’s reserve unit, arrested Martin without probable cause and then lied when he testified at Martin’s trial on a count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Martin and Jimmy Smith, who was then the president of the Bid-a-Wee Homeowners Association, were involved in a fistfight in Smith’s yard in July 2011. Smith called police, who arrived and arrested Martin on felony charges of aggravated assault, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and assault on a person over 65.

Martin and Smith had a long-standing dispute over Smith’s actions as president of the homeowners association, including the placement of gates at the neighborhood’s beach accesses, according to News Herald archives.

The suit, which was filed in BayCounty on Wednesday, claims Smith was the aggressor in the fight, and Martin only defended himself after Smith “sucker punched” him. Kelly performed a one-sided investigation that resulted in Martin’s wrongful arrest, the suit alleges, and Panama CityBeach, as Kelly’s employer, failed to investigate Kelly’s history and training.

“It went from one bad nightmare to another,” Martin said Monday.

Martin is seeking attorney’s fees and unspecified punitive damages from both Kelly and the city. He said the media coverage of his arrest hurt his reputation and career in the electrical supply industry, and the incident in general caused him great stress as he awaited trial.

“They don’t have enough money to repay what they did to me,” Martin said.

Kelly resigned from the police department last year for family reasons unrelated to Martin’s arrest, said Chief Drew Whitman, who added that the lawsuit had not yet been served on the city but he had been notified of the intent to file it. Whitman said he would not be commenting on the pending litigation.

Kelly said he also had not been served with the suit and declined to comment.

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